Birding at the Bluffs

By Dan Burnett, Chief of Interpretive Services

Birding: the identification and observation of wild birds in their natural habitat as recreation; bird-watching. (dictionary.com)
 
Every year, an estimated 85 million Americans enjoy watching, feeding or photographing birds. Birding ranked just above hiking and just below bicycling on a recent national survey of Americans’ favorite activities. Birding is so popular because it is simple and inexpensive. Armed with a good pair of binoculars, a field guide for pictures or a smartphone with a birding app (with the added bonus of sound)—and you are ready to go! Birding can be done any time and almost anywhere. Once you start as a birder, you are always birding. Look out your kitchen window…birding! Driving to work…birding! Working in your backyard...birding! The great thing about birding is that birds are everywhere and able to be observed year-round. This hobby can be as easy or challenging as you make it.

Whether you are a beginner, a new birding family or a veteran birder, Lake Erie Bluffs is a choice spot for observing bird behavior right near your own backyard. From sky to brambles, lakeshore to woods, bird activity abounds within the diverse habitats of Lake Erie Bluffs. The 50-foot-tall observation tower affords a 360-degree view to scan the horizon for bald eagles, red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures. Lake Erie itself may provide a glimpse of red-breasted mergansers, bufflehead or even a common loon. With miles of trails to search the woodlands, thickets and fields for orioles, common yellow warblers and catbirds, even a beginning birder has success at Lake Erie Bluffs. 

Lake Metroparks’ staff have documented 242 species of birds at the park. During the past two years, we have enjoyed a flight of more than 400 turkey vultures, hundreds of gulls, a morning of more than 140 flickers and mixed blackbird flocks of nearly 10,000 birds. In May, we have watched the arrival of more than 1,200 blue jays, up to 3,000 American crows and the return of hundreds of bank swallows to their nesting colony.

Rare birds found at the Bluffs include: brant, black vulture, Northern goshawk, golden eagle, yellow rail, Sabine’s gull, Eurasian collared-dove, fish crow, cave swallow, bohemian waxwing, Kirtland’s warbler, clay-colored sparrow and red and white-winged crossbill. Uncommon species include: red-necked grebe, little gull, long-eared owl, short-eared owl, Northern saw-whet owl, Northern shrike, Henslow’s sparrow, Nelson’s sparrow, summer tanager and Brewer’s blackbird.